Author: TechBrunch

SoftBank and OpenAI this week announced a new 50-50 joint venture to sell enterprise AI tools in Japan under the “Crystal Intelligence” brand. In theory, this is a simple international expansion deal. But SoftBank's role as a major investor in OpenAI raises questions about whether the biggest AI deals are creating real economic value or just circulating capital. On TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Kirsten Kolosek, Anthony Ha, and AI editor Russell Brandom explain why people are skeptical about this deal and what it suggests about the sustainability of AI's current investment model. Listen to the full episode to hear: What Box…

The US Congressional Budget Office has admitted that it was hacked. CBO spokesperson Caitlin Emma told TechCrunch on Friday that the agency is investigating the breach and has “identified the security incident, took immediate action to contain it, and implemented additional monitoring and new security controls to further protect the agency's systems going forward.” The CBO is a nonpartisan agency that provides economic analysis and cost estimates to members of Congress during the federal budget writing process, including after a bill is approved at the committee level in both the House and Senate. On Thursday, the Washington Post, which first…

Security researchers have discovered Android spyware targeting Samsung Galaxy phones during a nearly year-long hacking campaign. Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 researchers said the spyware, called Landfall, was first detected in July 2024 and relied on exploiting a security flaw in Galaxy phone software that Samsung didn't know about at the time, a type of vulnerability known as a zero-day. Unit 42 said the flaw could be exploited by sending a maliciously crafted image to a victim's phone, possibly delivered through a messaging app, and the attack may not have required any interaction from the victim. Samsung patched this security…

As reported by Bloomberg, Chris Sacca's venture firm Lower Carbon Capital is raising a second round of funding to back fusion energy hopefuls, the firm announced Thursday at the SOSV Climate Technology Summit. The company has supported nuclear fusion giants Commonwealth Fusion Systems and Pacific Fusion, among others. The company raised $250 million in fusion-related funds in 2022. Fusion believers, including many prominent climate venture investors in addition to Sacca (such as Vinod Khosla), believe that the breakthrough needed to make it commercially viable is just around the corner. And some advances show promise for making that a reality. On…

Francesco Nicodemo, a consultant who works with left-wing politicians in Italy, has been announced as the latest target of Paragon spyware in the country. On Thursday, Nicodemus said in a Facebook post that he had not wanted to make his case public for 10 months because he “didn't want it to be used for political propaganda,” but now “the time has come.” “It's time to ask a very simple question: Why? Why me? How could such a sophisticated and complex tool be used to spy on civilians as if they were drug traffickers or threats of state destruction?” Nicodemus wrote.…

Paul Erlanger and Se Yong Park, co-founders of consumer cryptocurrency trading app Fomo, have taken an unconventional approach to raising capital, and it's paying off. Their app launched in May and just announced a $17 million benchmark-led Series A round (an unusual crypto bet for a top VC firm), bringing total funding to $19 million. Instead of a classic seed round, the founders created a list of 200 people they dreamed of having as angel investors. “We knew that in this business, every person is valuable to us,” Erlanger told TechCrunch. They then tapped into their network for a warm…

Lagos-based Ventures Platform, one of Africa's most active early-stage investors, has raised $64 million so far for its second fund and is targeting a final close of $75 million, founding partner Kola Aina told TechCrunch. Investors include the Nigerian government through its Investing in Digital and Creative Enterprises (iDICE) programme, marking the first time the government has invested in a VC fund. This is important because Nigeria's fast-growing startup community is home to the highest number of startup unicorns on the African continent. Other limited partners in Ventures Platform's second fund include IFC, British International Investment (BII), Proparco, Standard Bank,…

The University of Pennsylvania acknowledged Tuesday that hackers stole the university's data as part of last week's data breach, during which alumni and other officials received suspicious emails from official university email addresses. The message from the hacker read, “We have been hacked.” “We love breaking federal laws like FERPA (all your data will be leaked),” the message added. “Please stop giving me money.” Penn initially told TechCrunch that the email was “fraudulent,” but the university has now acknowledged the hackers' claims that the data was stolen during the breach. “On October 31, Penn discovered that a select group of…

Google's $32 billion acquisition of cloud security company Wiz is one step closer to the finish line. Wiz CEO Assaf Rapaport said at a Wall Street Journal event on Tuesday that the acquisition had cleared antitrust review by the U.S. Department of Justice, Reuters reported. Rappaport added that while the deal is a milestone, there is still a way to go before it is officially completed. TechCrunch reached out to Wiz for more information on the timeline for closure. Google initially offered to acquire Wiz in 2024 for $23 billion. Wiz declined the offer, and Rappaport said at the time…

Cybersecurity is a huge field, but startups in this space are more likely to be acquired than to go public. Even Wiz, which once held the title of fastest-growing startup, abandoned its IPO ambitions when it agreed to sell to Google earlier this year. In recent years, there have been very few major cybersecurity companies going public. SentinelOne went public in 2021, Rubrik went public last year, and Netscope went public in September. Armis, a nine-year-old cybersecurity startup based in San Francisco, plans to follow in the footsteps of these companies. The company announced Wednesday that it has raised $435…